Resilient furniture support structure

ABSTRACT

Filling support material used in furniture, such as beds and chairs within covering made from resilient material such as plastic having planar form and parallel elongate cavities in plural layers to provide spring like action. The filling structure can be modular and interengaged by lugs and sockets or suitable bonding. Within the elongate cavities load bearing ribs can be included to provide additional firmness.

United States Patent Wagner [54] RESILIENT FURNITURE SUPPORT STRUCTURE [72] inventor: Karl A. Wagner, Schramelstrasse 43, 8 Munich 60, Germany 22 Filed: Aug. 21, 1970 21 Appl. No.: 66,025

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Aug. 28, 1969 Germany ..P 19 43 832.5

[52] US. Cl. ..5/355, 161/38, 161/39, 161/48,161/69, 161/109, 5/361 B, 5/357 51 int. Cl ..A47c 27/00 [58] Field of Search ..5/345, 341, 350, 347, 363, 5/361 B, 357, 355; 161/38, 39, 48, 68, 69,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,674,752 4/1954 Berman ..5/361 B 540,112 5/1895 Rude ..5/357 2,982,341 5/1961 Besser ..5/350 [451 Dec. 26, 1972 2,627,077 2/ 1953 Forsyth ..5/345 2,584,313 2/1952 Woodman ..5/361 B 3,363,352 l/l968 Pachmayr ..5/355 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS 386,334 12/1932 Great Britain ..5/361 B OTHER PUBLlCATlONS A.P.C. Application of Nicolaas Sluyter, Ser. No. 383,860, published May 11, 1943 Primary ExaminerBobby R. Gay Assistant Examiner-Peter A. Aschenbrenner Attorney-Strauch, Nolan, Neale, Nies & Kurz [5 7] ABSTRACT Filling support material used in furniture, such as beds and chairs within covering made from resilient material such as plastic having planar form and parallel elongate cavities in plural layers to provide spring like action. The filling structure can be modular and interengaged by lugs and sockets or suitable bonding. Within the elongate cavities load bearing ribs can be included to provide additional firmness.

15 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTED DEC 2 6 I972 SHEET 1 BF 2 w, F Q

/nve/2/0/: KARL AWAGNER B ATTORNEYS P'A'TENTEDnms I972 SHEET 2 OF 2 lm/ KARL A. NER 51 EYS 1 RESILIENT FURNITURE SUPPORT STRUCTURE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The invention relates to a resilient upholstery support for use in furniture for sitting and reclining, such as easy chairs, automobile seats, beds and the like. it is a resilient upholstery filling made from plastic or like material and will normally be provided with a covering in use.

1n the course of technical development in the fumiture field, the earlier known spiral-spring mattresses have progressed to spring-filled mattresses which, instead of strong individual springs, are made from a large number of intertwined thin steel springs combined within a frame to form a filling. The framed spring filling is then enclosed in upholstery material and an outer covering. The advantages of those previously known spring-filled mattresses, which are still preferably employed in many cases as an upholstered support in furniture for sitting and reclining, reside substantially in that they are easier to handle and their springs have a longer useful life, while they shape themselves better to the body resting upon them. A disad vantage resides in that some of the springs come into contact with one another and produce disturbing noises, while they are considerably more costly to produce than conventional mattresses.

While noises can be avoided by employing for the spring filling individual small springs provided with a coating, this involves additional production costs.

A parallel development to spring-filled mattresses involved use of foam rubber as the resilient upholstered support in furniture used for sitting and reclining. Their disadvantage is relatively high weight and lack of porosity or permeability to air. Instead of foam rubber, there has been previously employed for the filling of upholstery, foam plastic having properties substantially similar to foam rubber.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly a primary object of this invention resides in providing a novel resilient upholstery support having desired properties of a spring-filled mattress, and which can be easily produced to meet the present orthopedic and hygienic requirements.

A further object resides in provision of unique resilient upholstered supports of the kind for use in furniture for sitting and reclining, such as easy chairs, beds and the like. The unique support is a planar upholstery filling made from plastic or like material and will normally be provided with a covering. The filling has cavities which extend parallel to one another in the longitudinal direction, so constructed that the cavities in the upholstery filling are situated one above the other in a number of layers, and that the interconnected walls by which they are laterally bounded consist of a homogeneous plastics material which is elastic and incompressible per se. The interconnected walls are disposed at an inclination in relation to the upper and/or lower, outside surfaces of the upholstery filling, which are preferentially subjected to bending stress on loading of the upholstery.

Upholstery will hereinafter be referred to where the upholstery filling contained in the resilient upholstered support is meant.

In contrast to the hitherto used plastics material in foamed form, in which natural elasticity and elastic compressibility of the material in itself and its elastic recovery are utilized, it is proposed to employ in the upholstery constructed in accordance with the present invention a homogeneous plastics material from which the walls bounding the cavities are made. Such walls have a relatively small thickness, and are subjected to bending stresses in relation to their elasticity.

Provided between the aforenoted superimposed layers of cavities are wall surfaces which extend from one narrow side of the upholstery to the other, substantially parallel to the outside surfaces of the upholstery and have either a plane or zig-zag form, whereby the upholstery is given a better static form and rigidity. Furthermore this structure avoids undesirable lateral yielding or shifting of the layers of cavities in relation to one another, which might occur without the partitions. At the same time these walls advantageously serve as the interconnected walls of adjacent cavities. Alternatively, these walls may be formed of plastic foils by which the walls surrounding the cavities are connected.

To increase the spring action in a vertical direction, i.e., substantially at right angles to the upper and lower outside surfaces, the invention provides, in the cavities, ribs which extend in the direction of the weight loading of the upholstery. Such ribs are mounted on a wall bounding the cavities and project into the cavity. While the ribs may connect at both edges, they are preferably connected to the cavity walls only along one edge, so that they become operative only when the upholstery is compressed to a particular extent, i.e., when, on partial compression of the upholstery, they bear at their free edge against a wall surface situated opposite this edge. For such purpose, the ribs are advantageously so arranged that the free edge of one rib always lies opposite the abutting edge of two adjacent cavity-bounding walls inclined relative to one another, so that the rib bears, as it were, in a channel at its free edge. The free edge is thus given a definitive bearing line and cannot deviate laterally.

[n the upholstery filling constructed in accord with the invention, the cavities may have polygonal sections, such as triangular, square, or hexagonal or, if desired, they can be made with a curved cross-section, such as circles or ovals as is apparent from the illustrated embodiments.

For the production of the upholstery, it is advantageous to employ individual elements each of which is produced as a closed unit, preferably by extrusion, from suitable plastic material. The extruded material can be cut to desired lengths and the individual elements juxtaposed and/or disposed one above the other and connected together in the most appropriate form for the particular purpose. For example, connection can be by means of engaging plug connection elements or by adhesive bonding or welding or the like. In order to hold the individual upholstery elements more securely together, there may also be provided tie members which extend transversely to the connecting or contact face between two adjacent upholstery elements and pass through the latter.

Further novel features and other objects of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, discussion and the appended claims taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS A number of preferred forms of structural embodiment of this invention are disclosed in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a part of an upholstery filling composed of a number of like elements;

FIGS. 2 and 3 are detail end face views of an upholstery part showing two different constructions, the arrangement of the walls being diagrammatically illustrated in FIG. 3;

FIG. 4 is a detail end view of another construction of an upholstery element; and

FIGS. 5 and 6 are detail sections through upholstery filling in the region of the connecting means of two upholstery elements showing the lug and socket fonnations.

DESCRIPTION As is apparent in FIG. 1, the upholstery 11 according to the invention may be single elements or may be composed of a number of upholstery elements 12. The elements are made with a large number of elongate cavities situated between the upper and lower flat wall surfaces 13 and 14. In the FIG. 1 example, walls 15 bound, in each instance, a cavity 16 of triangular cross-section.

. Situated between the adjacent layers of cavities, whose elongate dimensions extend parallel to the outside surfaces 13 and 14 respectively, are longitudinally and transversely extending walls 17, each of which is adjoined by two walls of a cavity which extend, either up or down at an acute angle therefrom, as shown being an angle of 45. The horizontal walls 17 ensure good stability of the upholstery, while the inclined walls 15 produce the spring action and elasticity.

In an upholstery element 21 constructed in accordance with FIG. 2, the cavities 22 between the outside surfaces 23 and 24 are of square cross-section disposed in diamond arrangement, only the cavities 26 immediately adjacent the outside surfaces 23 and 24 respectively and adjacent the central wall 25 parallel thereto being of triangular cross-section. Extending into the square cavities 22 are support ribs 27 at right angles to the outside upper and lower surfaces 23 and 24 and to the central wall 25. The ribs extend from the latter central walls or from the outside walls. The height of the support ribs 27 is smaller than the diagonal of the cavities 22, so that the ribs only become operative as spring elements under a relatively great load, and they are then subjected to bending stress.

In a construction of upholstery as illustrated in FIG. 3, the conditions are the same as in FIG. 2, except that no central wall is present here, so that the wall extending from one narrow side of the upholstery to the other follows a zig-zag course between the two outside side surfaces.

In the upholstery element 31 illustrated in FIG. 4 wherein, as in FIG. 2, a number of these elements may be combined to form a larger upholstery element of the desired size, the cavities 32 are of circular cross-section. The tubular walls 33 bounding each cavity 32 are connected together at their points of contact. The walls 33 of the outside tubes have connecting surfaces 34,

which are shown as flat, by which two adjacent elements 31 may be directly connected. The connecting surfaces could be shaped as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, two adjacent upholstery elements 41 and 51 may be readily connected together by means of profiled fillets 42 and 52 respectively, which engage in grooves 43 and 53 respectively, which are also profiled.

In addition, it is possible to provide in the upholstery elements cavities 44 in which an elastic tie member 45 is disposed in order to grip together the upholstery elements disposed one behind the other and in juxtaposition.

The particular advantage of upholstery filling constructed in accordance with the invention resides in that it has the advantageous properties of the admittedly good spring-filled upholstered supports for mattresses, but can be produced much more economically, especially because they can be manufactured by extrusion from homogeneous plastics material either as a whole or in the form of individual elements which can be assembled.

The invention maybe embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential characteristics thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the 0 foregoing description and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein.

What is claimed and desired to be secured by Letters Patent is:

l. Resilient upholstery filling comprising: plastic, or the like, planar shaped material provided with upper, lower and side wall surfaces and internal cavities extending parallel to one another in the longitudinal direction of said filling, said parallel cavities situated in a number of layers between upper and lower surfaces; interconnected walls laterally bounding and defining said cavities consisting of a homogeneous plastic material having elastic but incompressible properties, at least portions of said interconnected walls disposed at an inclination in relation to the outside surfaces of the upholstery, being preferentially subjected to bending stress on loading of the upholstery; and additional wall means disposed substantially parallel to the upper and lower surfaces of the upholstery filling extend between two sidewalls of the latter.

2. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 1, wherein said planar material consists of extruded plastic material.

3. Upholstery filling as defined in claim I, comprising: an assembly of a plurality of interengaged elements of said planar shaped material; and interengaging means on adjacent portions of said elements.

4. Resilient upholstery filling comprising:- plastic, or the like, planar shaped material provided with upper, lower and side wall surfaces and internal cavities extending parallel to one another in the longitudinal direction of said filling, said parallel cavities situated in a number of layers between upper and lower surfaces; interconnected walls laterally bounding and defining said cavities consisting of a homogeneous plastic material having elastic but incompressible properties,

at least portions of said interconnected walls disposed at an inclination in relation to the outside surfaces of the upholstery, being preferentially subjected to bendin g stress on loading of the upholstery; and elongate flat loading ribs disposed within at least a portion of said cavities so their elongate dimension extends parallel with the disposition of said cavities, each said loading rib being fixedly mounted to the internal wall surface defining an associated said cavity and disposed so it extends into the associated said cavity with its transverse dimension perpendicular to said upper surface.

5. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4, wherein said walls bounding a cavity at least partially form said walls of adjacent cavities.

6. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4, wherein said planar material consists of extruded plastic material.

7. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4, each of said loading ribs being fixed along one of their elongate edges with the other elongate edge being free and spaced away form the opposed wall surface of the associated cavity.

8. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 7, wherein the cavities associated with said loading ribs have at least two adjoining cavity walls inclined relative to each other to provide an elongate trough shaped wall surface parallel to and providing a receiving abutment for the free edge of the associated loading rib.

9. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4, wherein said cavities have a polygonal cross-section.

l0. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4 comprising: an assembly of a plurality of interengaged elements of said planar shaped material; and interengaging means on adjacent portions of said elements.

1 l. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 10, wherein said interengaging means comprise plug and socket connecting elements on outer surfaces of each planar element.

12. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 10, wherein said interengaging means comprise bonding means.

13. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 10, wherein elongate binding means extend through the said upholstery transversely to the connecting surfaces of two upholstery filling elements.

14. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 13, wherein said elongate means extend along and through aligned cavities.

l5. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 13, wherein said elongate means are elastic bands.

III II l 8 

1. Resilient upholstery filling comprising: plastic, or the like, planar shaped material provided with upper, lower and side wall surfaces and internal cavities extending parallel to one another in the longitudinal direction of said filling, said parallel cavities situated in a number of layers between upper and lower surfaces; interconnected walls laterally bounding and defining said cavities consisting of a homogeneous plastic material having elastic but incompressible properties, at least portions of said interconnected walls disposed at an inclination in relation to the outside surfaces of the upholstery, being preferentially subjected to bending stress on loading of the upholstery; and additional wall means disposed substantially parallel to the upper and lower surfaces of the upholstery filling extend between two sidewalls of the latter.
 2. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 1, wherein said planar material consists of extruded plastic material.
 3. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 1, comprising: an assembly of a plurality of interengaged elements of said planar shaped material; and interengaging means on adjacent portions of said elements.
 4. Resilient upholstery filling comprising: plastic, or the like, planar shaped material provided with upper, lower and side wall surfaces and internal cavities extending parallel to one another in the longitudinal direction of said filling, said parallel cavities situated in a number of layers between upper and lower surfaces; interconnected walls laterally bounding and defining said cavities consisting of a homogeneous plastic material having elastic but incompressible properties, at least portions of said interconnected walls disposed at an inclination in relation to the outside surfaces of the upholstery, being preferentially subjected to bending stress on loading of the upholstery; and elongate flat loading ribs disposed within at least a portion of said cavities so their elongate dimension extends parallel with the disposition of said cavities, each said loading rib being fixedly mounted to the internal wall surface defining an associated said cavity and disposed so it extends into the associated said cavity with its transverse dimension perpendicular to said upper surface.
 5. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4, wherein said walls bounding a cavity at least partially form said walls of adjacent cavities.
 6. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4, wherein said planar material consists of extruded plastic material.
 7. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4, each of said loading ribs being fixed along one of their elongate edges with the other elongate edge being free and spaced away form the opposed wall surface of the associated cavity.
 8. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 7, wherein the cavities associated with said loading ribs have at least two adjoining cavity walls inclined relative to each other to provide an elongate trough shaped wall surface parallel to and providing a receiving abutment for the free edge of the associated loading rib.
 9. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4, wherein said cavities have a polygonal cross-section.
 10. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 4 comprising: an assembly of a plurality of interengaged elements of said planar shaped material; and interengaging means on adjacent portions of said elements.
 11. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 10, Wherein said interengaging means comprise plug and socket connecting elements on outer surfaces of each planar element.
 12. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 10, wherein said interengaging means comprise bonding means.
 13. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 10, wherein elongate binding means extend through the said upholstery transversely to the connecting surfaces of two upholstery filling elements.
 14. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 13, wherein said elongate means extend along and through aligned cavities.
 15. Upholstery filling as defined in claim 13, wherein said elongate means are elastic bands. 